Next Step for Home Theatre/Gaming SFF PC

[LordSprezz]

I'm looking to build a HTPC, but one that can hold it's own in the games department. Right now I am leaning towards a GeForce GTX 770 for the GPU but am unsure as to which CPU would be best paired with it. Keeping in mind this will mostly be used to watched high res movies and TV shows.

 

[petermic]

I'm looking to build a HTPC, but one that can hold it's own in the games department. Right now I am leaning towards a GeForce GTX 770 for the GPU but am unsure as to which CPU would be best paired with it. Keeping in mind this will mostly be used to watched high res movies and TV shows.

What's your budget?

 

[LordSprezz]

I'm looking to build a HTPC, but one that can hold it's own in the games department. Right now I am leaning towards a GeForce GTX 770 for the GPU but am unsure as to which CPU would be best paired with it. Keeping in mind this will mostly be used to watched high res movies and TV shows.

What's your budget?

My understanding is you can expect to pay about the same on the CPU as the video card, so a few hundred would be understandable. That being said, I'm looking for places to cut costs as I am trying to keep my overall budget at around a grand and I know I'm going to be picky about the case.

 

[petermic]

I'm looking to build a HTPC, but one that can hold it's own in the games department. Right now I am leaning towards a GeForce GTX 770 for the GPU but am unsure as to which CPU would be best paired with it. Keeping in mind this will mostly be used to watched high res movies and TV shows.

What's your budget?

My understanding is you can expect to pay about the same on the CPU as the video card, so a few hundred would be understandable. That being said, I'm looking for places to cut costs as I am trying to keep my overall budget at around a grand and I know I'm going to be picky about the case.

Ok. If you were leaning to a few hundred dollars I'd go with the i7-4770k for $349 or the FX-8350 for $199.

 

[jaguarskx]

There is no need for a i7-4770k in a HTPC unless it's going to be used to encode videos. The i5-4670k will be more than enough.

 

[LordSprezz]

Thank-you, that's a lot of help! I'm still trying to figure out just how much I want to do with it. Any thoughts/advice on RAM?

 

[cmi86]

No disrespect jaguar but I wouldn't put haswell in a small space. It's hot enough on it's own, no need to take the house with it lol.

 

[jaguarskx]

Intel CPUs generally do not benefit much from RAM faster than DDR3 1600MHz. I recommend a minimum of 4GB (2GB x2), but 8GB (4GB x2) is my general recommendation.

If you do not plan on overclocking, then you can step down from the i5-4670k. Perhaps the i5-4570, or the i5-4430. Both are still more than capable of playing games.